Daytona Milton Keynes was delighted to welcome UK based Performance car specialists Backdraft Motorsport as new circuit sponsors this year. In addition to offering servicing, repairs and tuning of top end performance cars at their base in Milton Keynes, Backdraft prepare and race 2 Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 cars in the European based Supercar Challenge Championship.

We invited Mark and his team to pen a guest blog about last weekends race outing to Brands Hatch:

For the past 3 years the team have been improving the cars and developing the drivers. There have been plenty of highs and lows including podiums and big crashes. The last outing at Spa saw Fiona James T boned coming out of the hairpin onto the start finish straight. The car received extensive body, suspension and chassis damage. Not to mention a fairly shaken up driver…

So the past 3 months the team have been working tirelessly rebuilding the wrecked car whilst Fiona has been regaining her composure and developing her driver skills at the I Zone simulator facility at Silverstone. Just to add to the mix, our second driver Simon Atkinson has returned to the grid after a break and the 2^nd car required a few jobs doing to bring it up to FIA homologation.

On Monday 8^th September we tested both cars and both drivers at Silverstone. Simons car ran really well for the day and Simon adapted nicely to the new Pirelli tyres. Fionas newly rebuilt car suffered far too many gremlins including a failed battery, Hydraulic steering hose failure and a Track rod end ball joint. She managed some decent running, but to add insult to injury she ran out of fuel in the last session due to team error!

The next round is a rare treat for us as we usually have to travel around Europe ,a big logistical commitment. Brands Hatch GP is like a home race and new on the Supercar Challenge calender. The weekend consists of a 40 minute practice session, 30 minute qualifying and a 1 hour race on the Saturday. Then the evening re-preparing the cars ready for another 1 hour race on the Sunday. The cars come under some serious abuse in order to make the fast lap times. Simon hit a big curb at the end of first practice and broke a drive shaft bolt. The car was quickly diagnosed and repaired ready for qualifying. Fiona qualified 5^th and Simon 7^th.

Both cars got a good start in race 1. Simon pretty much followed Fiona for the first half of the race. The pit stop system is designed to equalise cars and make the racing more interesting. Fiona had a 1 minute stationary pit stop. Simon had a 1 minute plus 25 seconds pit stop as he hadn’t competed in the series this season. The pit stops were very slick. Fiona was just bashing out really consistant lap times one after another. Simon had the pace but every now and then he would push a bit hard and lose some time. After the pit window had finished Fiona emerged 2^nd with Simon in 4^th. Fionas raw speed and consistency allowed her to catch and pass for 1^st place. Simon made it up into 3^rd too. Meanwhile the team were checking and re-checking, did we do all the checks we were supposed to do? Did we put enough fuel in!? Sure enough the cars ran faultlessly, although getting a bit tired and ragged towards the end of the race. Fiona crossed the line a full 28 seconds in front of 2^nd place. With Simon just behind 2^nd in a well earned 3^rd place and podium! This was a fantastic achievement for the team and both drivers…

Meanwhile there was no time to waste, the cars needed checking over and cleaning, new tyres, fuel, data downloading…

The temperature dropped slightly on the Sunday and there was an air of dampness around. Both cars lined up on the grid. We had formed our bench mark. Could we repeat it? This time fiona had an additional 15 seconds on her pit stop due to winning the day before. Simon had a collosel 25 seconds penalty for being away from the series and finishing 3rd! Both cars got away cleanly on the rolling start. Again Simon followed for most of the first half of the race, but just couldn’t get past. Both cars were being held up by a Porsche, which eventually left the tarmac. Fiona then managed to press on with great pace and amazing confidence and consistency. Simon was fast, but still occasionally made the odd error and gradually fell from the back of Fionas GT3. The pit stops again went very well, although Fiona was so well in the groove she missed her instruction to pit 3 times! So we ended up pitting both cars together. The pit stop time penalty was just too much for Simon to overcome and he managed a very well deserved 3^rd place whilst Fiona stormed to the front to gain her 2^nd win of the weekend!

The next race for the team is back at Spa at the beginning of October. Can we repeat this good fortune?

Whilst the team at BDM are not racing they are intrusted with, what we consider, our customers pride and joy. We carry out regular servicing, repairs and tuning of top end performance cars. Our pedigree developed racing these cars ensures our attention to detail for every customer. We are an independent specialist so you can receive this level of service without paying main dealer prices. Based in Milton Keynes, we are very convenient for the local community and central for our wider UK audience.

We tend to deal with Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley and the Audi R8. We do occasionally work on other brands too such as Maserati, Aston Martin and others. We have a good reputation specialising in 4 wheel alignments both to standard road specification or to improve the cars handling and response.

We can be found on the social media sites like facebook and twitter, by email on info@backdraftmotorsport.com, by telephone on 01908648081 or why not just pop in and meet the team and have a look around?